SCRANTON—The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Anibal Luis Rodriguez, age 28, who resided in Pottsville, Reading, and Allentown during the time of the offense, was sentenced yesterday by U.S. District Court Judge Robert D. Mariani to 20 years’ imprisonment for participating in a methamphetamine trafficking conspiracy.

According to United States Attorney David J. Freed, the defendant previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute more than 500 grams of methamphetamine between July 2016 and May 2017.

Judge Mariani explained that he imposed the sentence because of the nature and extent of the drug trafficking operation headed by Rodriguez, including the torture of a woman who was held captive by members of the conspiracy for three days in a shed located on a co-conspirator’s property.

Judge Mariani also ordered Rodriguez to serve five years on supervised release following his prison sentence.

Rodriguez was indicted by a federal grand jury in August 2017, as a result of an investigation by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, investigators from the Pennsylvania State Police, and local police in Schuylkill County. Assistant U.S. Attorney Francis P. Sempa prosecuted the case.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. The Department of Justice reinvigorated PSN in 2017 as part of the Department’s renewed focus on targeting violent criminals, directing all U.S. Attorney’s Offices to work in partnership with federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement and the local community to develop effective, locally-based strategies to reduce violent crime.